NO FURNITURE?!
Things are wrapping up here at my current house, all other members having moved out. They also took their furniture with them today, so woefully, I am without a bed for awhile. I am a tough young guy, but it sure is nice to have a bed. I am sleeping on the only furniture left here-- a sofa. I think it'll work out. I am moving out on Thursday, so for the most part, I don't have long to live like this. Luckily almost all of my stuff is still in boxes from when I moved here in the first place. It'll make it a little less of a task to move. In any case, I am staying busy lately. Making the finances stretch is a full time job in itself lately. Hopefully my paycheck makes things easier soon. Trying to balance the car payment, insurance, rent, utilities, groceries, gas, and other miscellaneous expenses is a struggle at the very least. Besides that, I am supposedly saving for school tuition and housing... Oh well, I will try to chronicle more of my life tomorrow and we'll see if things gets a little more interesting.
SUMMER SOLSTICE AND 31 C
The longest day of the year, and it was the first time I was hoping the sun would go down sooner. It was so hot today that I barely wanted to move. I don't have air conditioning at work or at home, so I spent today absolutely cooking. I guess it's 1 in the morning, and I am still hot, but I gotta grab some Zzzz's now as I have work in the morning. I am hoping I move some more trailers this week. It's been a slow start to work, and I need to get things moving. Bills need to be paid as usual, and need money for this fall and starting school, again, so I can't afford to be broke. I wish I had more news, but I am just trying to sell my notebook and find a new place to live. Night
TUBED DEALS
I am so edgy tonight it's not even funny. I think I am about ready to rip somebody's arm off if they get a little too close. I guess it's just been too long of a frustrating day for me to be close to rational right now. Unfortunately, work turned out to be a disaster today, nearly all of it being a complete waste of my time, and it's not exactly like I have much of that to waste. And nearly all of the potential sales that I did have fell apart due to circumstances outside of my control. In any case, hopefully tomorrow sees me keep my lid on. I think the stress started to get to me in a way that I usually don't allow. I'm wound up so tight right now, that I'm afraid I'll snap when somebody wants to talk to me... In any case, I still have two more days before I have to write off the entire week, and there is always the chance that I could get lucky with a sale. Otherwise? I can give it a couple more weeks, but not too much more than that. I am already looking at BMO for a line of credit to get the rent paid and get the next place secured. I really don't want to overflex myself this summer, so we'll see where things are going. I may have to get pretty creative! I went to North Battleford, SK on Tuesday to see a Vanguard plant. It was really quite interesting. The manufacturing process there is quite involved, and they really make a nice trailer construction wise. I was quite impressed. They make a unit that I would be willing to make my primary residence - well, that is, if trailers had a much bigger bathroom. In any case, it helped me get to know the product more, and I had a good time, so I consider the trip a worthwhile investment in time. Well, seeing as how I need to be at work tomorrow by nine, I am off to see the sandman...
CREDIT CARD CHEQUES
Well, my money is stretched to a point where those normally annoying cheques sent by your over eager credit card company look attractive. I swear, I have been looking over them a lot recently, trying to decide if maybe cashing one wouldn't be such a bad idea... Of course, the interest rate on that puppy is horrendous, and the thought of paying back that little loan chills me to the bone. It would kinda be funny if it weren't so sad. In any case, hopefully soon will come the big days where I actually make a few sales, and can turn my attention away from my measly finances. In any case, this should prove to be an interesting week. I went to Granum and came back already, and am newly armed with a very dirty car with bad shocks. My insurance also went up to nearly double what it was last summer since I switched insurance companies. The good news is that the rates drop 40% on my next birthday, bur fortunately, I won't be driving the car then. No matter, the car makes it far easier to get to work and between lots and for that I am thankful. I just wish I could figure out how to pay for all of this. I'll write more tomorrow once I have gotten some sleep. Toodle-loo
THE WHEELS ON THE BUS GO ROUND AND ROUND...
Since I do not yet have my car up here, getting to work on Saturday can be a challenge due to the lack of bus coverage out there at the east location of our office. So I woke up at a little after six, got ready, and took off on my bike. That works out, well, alright. The problem lying in the fact that my day is already at least 10 hours long actually on the sales floor, and at that point, biking 16 miles just isn't an attractive option for me. That goes double depending on the wind conditions. Still, I am planning on hauling my car up here in a few days, and that should help me out a lot with our farflung showrooms. As far as actually moving units off of the RV lot? Well, that's a work in progress. I certainly have a lot to improve on there, but I have learned a lot over the last week, so any day now, I think. I still find the job fun, and it's an excellent challenge. We have some great units, and I truly look forward to helping people achieve their camping dreams. After work tonight, I decided to blow $13 on seeing the newest Star Wars movie. I was lucky I even got a seat. I walked through a few rows before going all the way to the front. I got lucky when the guy just behind one of the rows I walked through said there was room for a single. What an awesome show! That theater in the South Edmonton Common has reclining seats and awesome sound, which is the perfect way to see that movie. I think Episode III almost redeems the first two. Honestly, it was an excellent show with plenty of action. In any case, I haven't gotten a lot of sleep lately, so I'm hitting the sack.
BURNING MONEY
Everybody who knows me has most likely realized by now that I am very Dutch. Of course, "if you're not Dutch, you're not much." But the other part of that means being quite frugal, and so I rarely spend a dollar I can't justify well. That's why it shocks even me in how much I have spent on transportation in the last week or so. I have probably burned about $70 in transit passes and cab rides. $32 of that was spent last minute cab rides. They do the trick, but I can't afford frivolities like that right now. For those that I have not told yet, I have transitioned from being a University student to an RV salesman. It's going alright, though I need more experience at this point. Of course, that's probably because I have been working for about a week now. In any case, I see this as an excellent way to get some experience in sales, and make a decent wage over the summer. Still, paychecks are done on a monthly basis, so I have a long time to wait before the first one comes in. I am living all alone up here in Edmonton, especially right now as my roommates are out of town - one in Ft. MacMurray and the other is in Halifax. I guess now that the summer is in, and most of my friends and family live hundreds to thousands of kilometres away, I will have to figure out something else to occupy my time away from the workplace. The summer will be very long if I can't manage that! At least for tonight that won't be a problem. Since I have to be wide awake tomorrow at 7 PM, I think I am going to have to hit the sack now.
GRADES ARE IN!
I guess its hard to top the euphoria from earlier tonight when I realized how my grades turned out for the last semester. While I never thought I would be so happy to not see a C, there it is. I am now solidly over a 3.0. It's about $@^&@ time! While I can't claim that I deserved that grade any sooner than now, I am happy that I have figured out university enough that those kind of marks are attainable. I would have opened a bottle of champagne or something, but I am kind of the only person up here. It's really hard to celebrate alone, and the telephone is so inadequate at times like this. I sincerely hope that I find a job soon though. The grades are one part of the equation, but I really need to money to be able to continue this charade, so with a little luck, my search will be a little more successful tomorrow. I am getting things done, but way too slowly to be adequate for my needs at the moment. 24 is an excellent show. I always meant to watch it, but I have had a hard time getting into shows that span over multiple weeks. Due to an erratic schedule, I could never keep going with a show for an entire season, although that problem is solved with Tivo-like boxes and DVD boxed sets. Now that I have the opportunity to see it ad free and at my leisure, it has some real potential. Thus far, it seems captivating. We'll see if I feel the same after a few more episodes.
"ONE WAY" BY HILLSONG
That is a surprisingly good song. I have listened to that so many times now on Rhapsody, and I have to say, I am hooked. Actually, Mel had a live CD with them called More Than Life that I highly recommend after listening to it. If I ever make it to Sydney, Australia, I want to drop by there and take a look at the church. If nothing else, they must have a wicked worship service. I received word that Pastor Ed Dobson is stepping down from his role as Senior Pastor at Calvary church due to ALS (amyotrophic lateral schlerosis). I am a very calloused individual, but my heart bleeds for him. I genuinely respect Dr. Dobson as an incredible speaker and a man dedicated to God. I found his ministry moving and provocative over the years that I have attended services at Calvary church. I could not be more sorry to see him leave. From a sermon aspect, he was certainly one of the best I have ever had the privilege of hearing. My heart goes out to him and his family at this time. I pray that he does not suffer more than he needs to over the next few years.
THE MOVE, THE END, AND THE ____?
Well, I have finished all of my exams, and despite my tardiness in posting here, everything went well. Well, except for microbiology -- that exam was absolutely terrible. I hope that I still received a good grade in that class after all of that... In any case, that is the end to my second full year of university, which kind of creeps me out a bit. I am just about to turn 21, and my university education is halfway completed. I think that is enough to scare many people... In any case, my residence was fairly adamant that we vacate the building within 24 hours of finishing our final exams. That meant that I had to be out by Friday at 4 PM or so. I did make that time, though it wasn't a whole lot of fun. I really hate that job. There is nothing worse than trying to cram your life into a few boxes and then try to transport it to heaven knows where. I left my defective smoke detector unplugged, and I have a sneaky suspiscion that I will be billed for that, but hopefully I get lucky. In any case, I have left Lister for the last time, and there is a certain amount of sadness associated with that. I can't say that the building was any great thing, in fact, the elevators pissed me off constantly; they never worked correctly. But in spite of that, it was the people and community that I came to love, specifically, those that lived on my floor. I am very sorry to see them go, and I can only hope they keep in touch. I have now all of the photos I have taken, my notes, and my memories... I am not sure where I am now. I moved out of Lister into a house a few blocks south of the university. Actually, I have barely unpacked anything because I am really unsure as to what is going on. I am looking for a job in Alberta, wondering where my life is going and what is in store next. It is hard to say what I will be doing even six months from now, but I hope to have a job sometime really soon, and with a little bit of an income, I can begin sketching how things are going to look. Right now I am happy to accomplish the little things, like filing my tax returns today. And I am getting back a decent refund too.
EEK! FINALS!
This has been an awful week, and even though I knew it was coming, that didn't help. I have been studying like crazy for this weeks finals, and I can only hope that my grades are decent. I think I got a B+/A- in pharmacology, so in the first grade I am getting back, things look good. I had kind of set a goal for myself of nothing below a 75 for this semester, and I think I am going to hit that goal (hopefully). That is, if the exam tomorrow goes well. It is microbiology, so there are hundreds of little factoids I am supposed to memorize for fill-in-the-blank. It's amazing how on edge you can be kept with Euro dance or rap/hip-hop and a healthy dose of caffeine. I can't hardly stop shaking. And my fingers continually dance to a rhythm that plays endlessly in my head. The beat for "Switch" by Will Smith has never really left my head, so today during my biochem exam, I was silently answering questions to the melody. Kind of sad... I'll be glad when this thing is all over.